OLDSMAR, Fla. – Kathleen O’Connell has been fighting a nasty cold for about a month now, but as she would readily tell you, it’s better her than one of her horses. As one of many signs of her devotion to her stable, O’Connell has refused to skip a morning or two at either of her winter bases, Gulfstream Park West or Tampa Bay Downs, despite feeling downright miserable.

“No,” she said Wednesday between sets at Tampa, where on Saturday she will saddle Well Defined as a major contender in the track’s annual showcase event, the Grade 2, $400,000 Tampa Bay Derby.

Code of Honor
Noble Mission – Reunited, by Dixie Union
Bred in Kentucky by W.S. Farish

WHO’S HOT

Grade 2, $400,000 Fountain of Youth Stakes, 1 1/16 miles, Gulfstream Park, March 2, 2019

 (50 Derby qualifying points for a win, 20 for second, 10 for third, 5 for fourth)

 Winner: Code of Honor, by Noble Mission

 Trainer: Shug McGaughey

 Jockey: John Velazquez

 Owner: W. S. Farish

 Beyer Speed Figure: 95

Ten new names are in the lineup for Pool 3 of the 2019 Kentucky Derby Future Wager, which opens Friday at noon Eastern for the customary three-day run.

Pool 3 coincides with the only futures pool toward the 2019 Kentucky Oaks, with an Oaks-Derby double future wager being offered for the second year.

:: DERBY WATCH: Top 20 Kentucky Derby contenders with comments from Jay Privman and Mike Watchmaker

Global Campaign had a big excuse for his fifth-place finish under Luis Saez in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth last Saturday at Gulfstream Park, one that will put an end to his Kentucky Derby dreams.

Hidden Scroll remains on the Kentucky Derby trail, Mucho is off it, and Country House will make his next start in the Louisiana Derby, trainer Bill Mott said Monday as he evaluated a weekend where two of those horses ran and one worked.

Hidden Scroll, the beaten favorite after setting a wicked pace in the Fountain of Youth on Saturday at Gulfstream Park, will be considered for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby on March 30 or races the following week, including the Grade 2, $750,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct and Grade 2, $1 million Blue Grass at Keeneland.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Easy Shot’s status for the 2019 Triple Crown scene will be determined in a top-class running of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday.

The $500,000 San Felipe at 1 1/16 miles is expected to be led by Game Winner, the champion 2-year-old male of 2018, and Improbable, who won the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Futurity in December in his last start.

Monday, Game Winner worked five furlongs in 1:00.60, while Improbable went the same distance in 59.60 seconds.

The San Felipe will be by far the toughest race of Easy Shot’s career.

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Some people might have been troubled by Signalman’s seventh-place finish in Saturday’s Grade 2 Fountain of Youth, but his trainer Ken McPeek wasn’t one of them.

McPeek couldn’t have been more upbeat or confident in his Grade 2-winning Kentucky Derby hopeful when looking back on the effort the following day.

If ever a race lent credence to the old sports saying credited to coach Lou Holtz that, “You’re never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you’re never as bad as they say when you lose,” it was Saturday’s Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream.